The question of the authorship of The Two Noble Kinsmen has cast something
of a pall over it as a work of theatre. Regardless of how much was penned
by William Shakespeare and how much by John Fletcher, it has never received
the respect, in terms of admiration or production, that the majority of
Shakespeare's other plays have enjoyed. But does it really matter
who wrote it?

Of course it does, and that's demonstrated in every aspect of the shiny and
silky new production of it at the Public Theater. As the play itself is
mostly second-rate and unimaginative, you can't blame director Darko
Tresnjak for wanting to camouflage its flaws and mostly unimpressive writing
with some of the same techniques contemporary directors utilize to make
Shakespeare fresh and relevant to today's audiences. (This, more than
anything else, seems to suggest faith in Shakespeare's hand in the writing;
how many would bother for most of Fletcher's plays?)

Tresnjak and his creative team have unquestionably succeeded, making the
production a shimmering example of style triumphing material. Like many of
Shakespeare's late works, this play is not easily quantifiable as a comedy
or a drama, giving it a somewhat murky feeling, and making its adaptation of
Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale" seem dispirited at best. It also makes this
one of the rare cases where the original source material is better known and
loved than Shakespeare's adaptation of it; that's no coincidence.

The story here, as there, details the travails of two cousins (Arcite and
Palamon) who, while imprisoned for attacking the Athenian Duke Theseus, spy
Emilia, the sister of Theseus's bride and immediately fall in love with her.
This leads to a lengthy and often violent confrontation between the two,
previously as close as two men could be in the grand Romantic tradition.
While there is a subplot of the daughter involving the jailer's daughter and
her unrequited love for Palamon (that eventually drives her mad, naturally),
the story twists and turns as the two men vie for (and occasionally win)
Emilia's eye.

The performers, in keeping with Tresnjak's directives, bring a great deal of
modern verve to their characters. This occasionally makes the production
feel like any of a number of TV shows that have dealt with a very similar
plot, complete with attractive, energetic, and youthful players in the
central roles who unwittingly add triviality to an already trivial subject.
This is not to impugn their talents, however, as David Harbour and Graham
Hamilton as Arcite and Palamon and Doan Ly as Emilia all give excellent,
colored portrayals of their characters. And Jennifer Ikeda, supplely
portraying the jailer's daughter, threatens to steal the show with her
portrayal here much the way she almost walked away with As You Like It (in
this same theater) this past spring.

But supplying the play as he does with numerous moments both simple (the
cousins' confrontations) and grand (the Gods bestowing their blessings prior
to the last of the cousins' conflicts), Tresnjak provides serious
competition, and even protection, for the performers. His intercession
between the actors and the audience and the text itself allows him to give
The Two Noble Kinsmen the brightly burnished appearance of a time-tested
classic that, regardless of authorship, it does not have on the page.